Turina, Joaquin

Joaquin Turina – Danzas fantásticas, Op. 22

(b. Sevilla, 9. December 1882 – d. Madrid, 14. January 1949)

Exaltación
Ensueño
Orgía

Preface
Turina was born in the southern Spanish city of Seville in 1882. Musically precocious, he gave his first public recital as a pianist at age 14 and was composing a year later. His parents initially insisted he study medicine in Seville, but he knew his true calling was music. Abandoning medicine, in 1902 he moved to Madrid to further his musical education and then in 1905 to Paris, where he studied piano under Moritz Moszkowski and composition with Vincent d’Indy. He also became friends with some of the leading French composers, including Debussy and Ravel. He much admired and studied their works; and there are certainly shades of impressionism in much of his music.

His greatest influences however were two other Spanish composers residing in Paris at the time, Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albeniz. They encouraged him to adopt a Spanish national style. As he later wrote: “We were three Spaniards gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight bravely for the national music of our country.”

At the start of WW I he returned to Madrid to begin an illustrious career as a pianist, conductor, composer, critic and professor. Turina penned more than one hundred works, ranging from symphonic music, operas, piano pieces, vocal works, ballets and a great deal of chamber music. Most of his music shows the influences of traditional Spanish folk tunes and dance rhythms while also incorporating elements of French impressionism. …

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